Fort Snelling Troop Trains

[SPer]

Can you tell me which railroad  took the Fort Snelling troop trains from the Twin Cities to the West Coast after the attack of Pearl Harbor.

[Deggesty]

The direct routing possibly was the Omaha road to Omaha and thnxe UP-SP to San Francisco or UP to Los Angeles.

However, many different routings were used between particular city pairs.

[NP Eddie]

Fort Snelling, MN was on the MILW only, so the MILW probably handed off the trains to the OMAHA south of the Twin Cities.

One suggestion is to contact the Minnesota Historical Society to request more information on the Fort Snelling troop trains.

 

Ed Burns

Retired clerk from Northtown Yard (Minneapolis)

[SPer]

Or the Milwaukee Road could take troop train from Fort Snelling to Kansas City, MO and handed to Santa Fe to Los Angeles or the MILW handed the train to GN or NP at SPUD (Saint Paul Union Depot) for the Seattle run.

 

[NP Eddie]

SPer:

I talked to my fellow clerk who was of MILW and GN lineage and he has seen pictures of Fort Snelling troop trains, but does not know how they where routed out of the Twin Cities. Their hand off to another railroad would depend on their routing. Trains for the west coast probably were routed MILW to the Pacific Northwest. My suggestion is to contact the MILW Historical Society for more information.

Ed Burns, retired clerk from Northtown (Minneapolis)

[SPer]

Great Northern and Northern Pacific also serves the Twin Cities,too

[NP Eddie]

The question of troop trains on the MILW would be one for the MILW Historical Society to answer.

[wjstix]

I suppose it would depend where they were going - Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego? 

Keep in mind the Twin Cities grew up around the fort. If you're driving across the Mendota Bridge from Mendota Heights across the Minnesota River towards the fort, you can see Ft. Snelling, Twin Cities Int'l Airport, downtown Minneapolis, and Downtown St.Paul. Within a few miles of the fort, the Milwaukee could pass the train to the GN, NP, Burlington, Rock Island, C&NW / CMO, M-St.L, or CGW.